Ionic liquid as catalyst and reaction medium - a simple, efficient and green procedure for Knoevenagel condensation of aliphatic and aromatic carbonyl compounds using a task-specific basic ionic liquid

The basic ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hydroxide, [bmIm]OH, efficiently catalyzes Knoevenagel condensation without requirement of any organic solvent. A wide range of aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes and ketones easily undergo condensations with diethyl malonate, malononitrile, ethyl cyanoacetate, malonic acid and ethyl acetoacetate. The reactions proceed at room temperature and are very fast (10-30 min). However, the most significant feature of this methodology is the condensation of aliphatic aldehyde with diethyl malonate, which is not very easy to achieve by conventional reagents, and was not addressed adequately in literature providing a general and convenient procedure